Wednesday 30 May 2012
Sunday 20 May 2012
Arkadia first year anniversary TP run
Entropia Tour Agency tp run on Arkadia
Rounding up runners and security team...Stave taking care of the security team and Teshik of the runners
Bathroombreak and getting coffee
Break at the lake and looking for crocs
Driving through an Oweko spawn
Running with the Owekos...the poor Valkyre didn't survive
Treasure hunting for the runners...prizes supplied by the Arkadian advisors...very cool!
interesting level increase
YAY!
Reached level 30 laser pistoleer (I know you bunch of ubers....its still a noob level). Things are getting interesting now as I will change the pistol from CAP-303 Desert to the basic CAP-404.
Thanks to the NIP (Next Island Pistol) and NI dev team for giving it away for free and a lot of unhappy caraboks.
Cheers, Roni
Reached level 30 laser pistoleer (I know you bunch of ubers....its still a noob level). Things are getting interesting now as I will change the pistol from CAP-303 Desert to the basic CAP-404.
Thanks to the NIP (Next Island Pistol) and NI dev team for giving it away for free and a lot of unhappy caraboks.
Cheers, Roni
Carabok grind:
Saturday 19 May 2012
Monday 14 May 2012
Cyrene stories
selling goods at the naval base NE of ARC HQ
Zil'Zik
there be small ugly dragons
testing the Spear
momma got new armor
silly merfolk 1
silly merfolk 2
My opinion on Ark wpns
After months only using laser pistols (a soc mate convinced me to use the CAP series) with much pleasure I got a desert LAW-303 (used a maxed LR53 before). I still had a A104, although Im not sure if that is very eco, and that gun totally rocks. Someone sold me a Scope and a laser....I know its not an uber gun (Im not that rich lol) but hell fun to handle. Maybe its a matter of taste but Ark guns just are amazing! Cheers, Roni
Nice knife..where is the bacon?
Was roaming at the boots in Celeste Quarry...found this nice knife...now I can at least cut my chicken breasts XD.....I was surprised at the amount of items offered..from guns to armor or even low MU Quads , thrusters and Kismet laser. The only thing that is rare are MF items as chips and light Mind Essence
Entropia Sweating
What will be missed though is another aspect of group sweating, which isnt directly benificial to MindArks bankaccount, is the social part. Being a regular at Nea's Place in the past I did recognise the part that players do interact, having discussions on any possible topic. Regulars visiting the place , teaching some basics or simply helping out by healing or finishing dry mobs. The place also builds team spirit...as the mob is still to big to be handled by a single player, it forces a group to work togheter. E.g. the famous sweat circle or swunt teams.
Now here is food for thought. What kind of activity could be introduced which both make sweating obsolete as a way of getting an income and still provide a environment that creates or even forces players to cooperate. Honestly...I wouldnt know.
What I do think is that the VSK MK I should be removed from the starters set. I realise that the whole system and approach of the new colonist would need a complete overhaul. So what could a new colonist use instead? Give them a backpack (gimmick wise) and a flashlight? Some areas can be quite dark at night. Some incentive to make them gather all teleporters? I like the system of the Gateway and Arkadia NPE provide new colonists with L basic tools to get *the idea* and that's very cool. It's close to *trial version* of many MMORPG and very suited to the RCE system of MA.
Just some tuesday morning ramblings on my behalf
Boots, a party and headaches
Boots, a party and headaches
Some time ago Saradu promised that if I saw nice boots for sale I should warn her. Yesterday I checked auction and found Cadet Cowboy Boots M,C....but not colored yet which suits me great. I told Saradu and before I had a chance to say anything else I was the proud owner of some cool boots! Thank you sweetheart..that was very generous of you :) Now I will hunt some oro to get me some brown paint cans and color them myself..not that Im skilled enough..but its fun to try.. Saradu had some very sexy lacy suit so we changed and hit the centre court of Port Atlantas.
Yoshii was DJing for hotplanet.rock, yes Caly's infamous radiostation, but I like Yoshii and know her for some time so I thought she deserved a try. She was doing a great show....good tunes and friendly comments. Caly popped in which wasnt too bad..I gratted him on his Trox globals....I was getting a bit fed up with the endless fights as it gets no-one anywhere. Yoshii gave away some prizes with contests...usually I dont bother and I think newcomers can use those items better then me. But this time I thought it would be fun to participate and to my surprise I won a nice Herb Box (healing device). Actually winning a Herb Box from HPR is a bit ironic XD
What some partygoers got a bit annoyed and one person even upset was pple keeping landing their vehicles on our heads. Resulting in comments from mellow, hey that gives me an headache, to really angry ones. I really wish MA had designed a spaceport close to PA and a mob free road to the city. Saradu had a good point saying that the roof of the Mall was a good place...it has an elevator to ground level
Some thoughts on Hunting
As hunting is my main profession I would like to share some of my experiences with you. It's ment as writing down some basic rules and to start some discussion if that is possible. The title says it allready: I'm a noob hunter..I'm not starting this post to show off my (not having any really) skills.
To be clear: I like hunting. The thrill of being able to kill mobs, the action, concentration needed and yes....having that occasional global or even HoF. Yes, I have my fair share of them. Now here is a big trap that sadly a lot of hunters in EU go wrong....they start chasing the globals. That, my friends, is very close to gambling. MA is partly to blame for that with the global messaging in chat which you can't turn off. This is just MA advertising! An incentive to make us hunt more...and tell you what?...it actually works. The only reason I keep an eye on it cause I like to see friends global...I always send my grats when I see it.
Lot of hunters throw all loot in the Trade Terminal. Now here miners are more sensitive ....they search for the ores and en matters that have good Mark Up. Hunters don't seem to care. That's the only reason why I think they love to hunt atrox cause it has some nice ring to it...YEAH MAN, IM A BIG HUNTER, I GRIND ATROX!.
It's downright stupid. Why? Atrox don't drop anything interesting, thats why. Any CB26/29 BLP gun has a MU of almost zero. And aren't that great either IMHO.
So the smart hunter, just like the miner, knows the market and adapt to that. E.g.: lately on Arkadia I found 2 minor mobs nice to hunt: the Zadul is fun to hunt and the Oro. It turns out that oro hide has a good market with the decent drop of eye oil (both around 102% MU) and that the Zadul hide are almost impossible to sell even with an MU of 125%. You have one attempt to guess what Im hunting...right.
Side note on trading: pple are buying faster if they think they can trust you. Using trade channel, wear decent clothes and proper use of language are major assets here. Knowing good traders and crafters can really make a difference in recouping your losses.
Some thoughts of a noob hunter part 2,
Here are some basics rule I follow as a hunter:
1) Use the right gun for right mob. Small mob? Use a small gun. I'm over 2 years in Entropia and I'm still hunting with a CAP-101 L(TT 5PED) on oro young to old maturity. No amps, no enhancers. If I switch to oro provider to Stalker I use the CAP-303 L with A103 unL (125 TT +125% MU, 30 TT+50 PED MU). The CAP-303 amped is great up to Huon young, Ambulimax young to old, Atrox up till Guardian. Often I use the CAP-101 to finish off a hard mob to prevent waisting ammo. I will leave the melee weapons out of this post but I do use the Katchuiki Determination and Cleric dagger 3c on occasion to built my strenght attribute.
2) Use the right armor. I have several set ups but I love my adjusted Pixie unL...decent protection, very good durability, meaning my repair bills stay decent. Pixie is considered very noob armor...so be it. I like it. For mobs with some serious impact damage I can switch to Jaguar L armor..especially when there is no healer around. The way I hunt unL armor like Nemesis (I loved that armor, never should have sold it) is just to expensive. I don't like grinding, missions like: kill 10.000 atrox is really not my idea of fun, and I will get those skills anyway...in my way.
3) Succes rate on drops is this simple:
* don't hunt where other hunters are
* preferable an old spawn
* clean out the whole area..bigger chance on decent returns, don't return there if a fresh spawn is there after you cleaned it out for a while
* if you have a couple of no loots or very bad loots like blazar....move to another area. say like 100-200 meters. anyone who has hunted knows exactly that feeling like: oh no...this is not good
* STOP if you have a bad feeling on returns...go do something else...have patience
* don't die....your ammo will be waisted. make sure you have an emergency FAP with you like a FAP80 and if skilled enough a SK20 L is more eco.
* if you die a teleport chip can work miracles: in the 10 sec before teleporting press P for position or type /pos for a waypoint to return ASAP to finish off the mob
Some thoughts of a noob hunter part 3,
eco/non eco and SIB versus unL
There are several ways and motivations to build skills as a hunter. I'm not judging but I will point out some general directions. The choice is up to you.
As most know Entropia can get pretty expensive. What most pple don't understand they are responsible for that themselves. The moment you feel it's getting too expensive and you doný have fun anymore you have to ask yourself this question: what am I doing wrong or what are my expectations of Entropia?
MindArk has set up an open system so it's really up to you what to make of it. You can either choose for the most economic way of playing or just have the attitude: as long as I have fun I don't mind throwing some PEDs in this universe. Now let's make one thing clear: MA is a company who wants to have some profit. They have their expenses: server park, energy consumption and personel. So us depositors make sure the company will survive and we have a good time.
The economic way of playing, some basic rules:
* use SIB weapons (Skill Increase Bonus), they give your skill increase a little push. All SIB weapons are Limited. Your learning curve will slow but steady at the most economical way. Before you start to cheer, it's still expensive: my SIB level rifle is the Isis LR53 L laser carabine. That one goes for 320 PED full TT with a MU around 110%= 352 PED= $35. Great gun, 40-90 damage...even better with an A104 amp attached.
Not so bad huh? It can be...I can easily burn it down in a week...not even grinding. That bad yes. So I sometimes just take a step back and hunt smaller mobs with a smaller gun.
Pistols are great, less damage but faster and a bit more eco. the P4a is very eco and I personally prefer the Arkadian CAP series. Only disadvantage: not really usable when you dont have the appropriate skill.
* use armor that fits your needs....your wallet will be very thankfull as the repair bills keep decent. I even prefer L armor: I don't have to repair it and it will give full protection until it's broken....I think it's even more economic. If you don't need an armor and can survive with an occasional heal..even better. Just make sure you heal after the kill. And use an eco FAP. Especially when you have the time. Using a SIB FAP will increase you medical skills even faster. But an emergency FAP is a MUST HAVE.
Some thoughts of a noob hunter part 4,
The non economic style: pushing your skills up
* using an higher level unL weapon has some advantages: higher damage, not skill related. So basicly you can hunt bigger mobs. This means that you also will skill faster. unL weapons are basicly only eco when you are level 100 or higher. What does this mean? You will have more MISS. So waisted ammo. But good side is: you always can repair your weapon. Resume: you skill faster, but for a certain price.
* using higher level armor. This will give you the possibilty to hunt bigger mobs...price: decay as you will have more misses and low evade skills..your armor will decay a lot. Some attributies will skill faster, like evade and bravado, as you are hit by bigger mobs. L armor will break faster and unL armor will have to be repaired more frequently. So again: it comes with a price.
* using unL FAPs like the FAP80 or FAP90. They will heal you faster in a certain range.
* another non eco way to skill is chipping skills in. Now this is only usefull when you are very low skilled or just need that little push to reach a certain level. You will have to pay for the initial ESI (empty skill implant) with MU and the skills. Yes, skills are worth PEDs in Entropia...and a lot too. For ranged weapons there are 2 skills needed: the hit ability and ranged damage skills. Togheter they determine your skill in ranged weapons. When chipping in for hunter profession it's wise to also chip in on evade skills, maybe even on paramedic skills
Some thoughts of a noob hunter part 5, last thoughts
Good karma-bad karma
Yeah, we hunters are a superstious lot. Before every hunt I pray to Lootius. Some days I just know he will not listen to me. Then I will holster my gun and go do something else...
It takes two to tango
In the old days we would start with the Sollomate Opalo rifle. We would skill up..even attach a amp like the A101 or the Shear 1 to it. We would max the gun and move to the BreerM1a and keep skilling. Then we discover that our ranged damage skill would seriously lag on the hit ability skill....damn.....we never used a pistol. Yes......you will need to use a pistol to skill your rifle skills. To be more precise...the seasoned hunter will stick mostly to his pistol. Why the rifle? We can tag (pull closer) the mob with the rifle and allready do a big deal of damage. That's why....
Yay, I'm a grenadier!
Another way to tag a mob and in this case a lot of mobs is using a grenade launcher. Over a big distance you can hit a whole group of mobs....finishing them off with your pistol. Why a herd of mobs? Remember what I said about cleaning out an area? Thats why. Hard to skill but does impressive damage. The grnade launcher needs more time to reload...thats a disadvantage. The grenade launcher was a favorite weapon of a famous PKer
Teamhunting
Teamhunting is fun. Period. The big advantage is that you can take down bigger mobs then solo hunting due to the rule: a lot of small guns make one big gun. Another advantage is that you can circle a mob..it will need time to decide on the target, running around meaning it has less time to hit someone...win-win situation. Yes...the famous sweat group disipline is here even more important.
Lootius who resides in Mind Arks heavens
May your kingdom come to share your wealth
That thou force be with us
... In Entropia as in real life
Give us daily our share of loot
Forgive us for our MISSES and FAILS
as we will forgive those who MISS us
Dont tempt us to waste our ammunition
by shooting in virtual thin air
Lootius: Entropia belongs to you
as do the globals, HoFs and ATHs
till Eternity
Noob hunting
note: johntrike and his wife anjatrike (from Belgium) run a respected soc: Trikers
Omegaton versus Chikara
Yesterday a small ambu hunt with the Katchuiki Determination on Ambus in Nea's.....first I thought returns were really bad (30%) as I looked in the stackables for the usual drop of oils and ammunition....today I checked again and something stroke me as od... I found a Chikara FAP, nothing fancy, and had that one before....the weird part is finding a Chikara pistol too I never saw before...had specs compared to a P2a...cant scratch an ambu with it.....but I wonder....is the Chikara company trying to get a better bussines foothold on Calypso on weaponry now?....Omegaton company is the usual supplier as they were tied up with the Imperial Federation...even though the IF no longer recognises Omegaton as *owner* of Calypso after the first desastrous robot wars and the lost battle which destroyed Hadesheim....questions, questions, questions....
His name is...dragonfire
As I didnt had much to do I was hanging around PA...Ion chatted me and asked if I still had a Quad for sale. I still had so we agreed on a price. Saradu wasnt around for a while so I figured I could go to Arkadia where Ion was to transfer the Quad. It was quiet in space...besides the usual junkyard of motherships and privateers I only detected one other Quad which was moving away fast from me...Im that scary yes lol. The trip to Ark went smooth, once the direction was set I turned on Atlas Haven Radio and relaxed. Soon I arrived on Celeste Quarry and said hi to Fons and jussi Flodder (Fons had the free NI gun which had a remarkable resemblence to a handheld vacuumcleaner...known in the Netherlands as *kruimeldief*), Hodges and Neil. Shortly Ion popped in and the deal was done. I met Tes for the first time, another ranger, at Celeste Harbour. She was born at Arkadia and had not seen space yet. So Ion and me started our Quads and Tes joined me as passenger. Plan was to pay John Black Hawk a visit at his MS to say hi. His MS was close to Calypso where we soon arrived. John wasnt on so we moved on to Calypso. In Calypso Ion and Tes went their own way and I stayed in PA...yes...on the wall again.
Dragonfire came rushing in and we had a great talk. His idea is to throw a birthdayparty for his mentor, Lady Reynock, at the racetrack on FOMA next saturday. He allready asked if I could invite rangers to the party...NBK and Vikings of Calypso will be there too. We had a long talk about many things..he is pretty new in Entropia and a lot of drama that had happened in the past...especially Rockplanet soc and the Patriots MS scam was history for him. I filled in some blanks as I had witnessed a lot of it from close by. I was amazed by the knowledge Dragonfire allready displayed..especially for the sort time he is around. We will hear a lot of amazing things from him in the future!
Attitudes
Entropians, especially the regulars and long term players, are usually civilised and friendly people that respect eachother and treat eachother nice (except on the forum sometimes). Sometimes you encounter someone who is not so *nice*. I know that as we don't really *see* eachother in a virtual world such as Entropia, we judge eachother on avatar appearance and expression in chat. Entropia clearly has its own dynamics which even Im not totally sure of. What happened was that an clearly older and experienced player started to comment on Saradu on her hair and shirt followed by a couple of innuendos when I asked her friendly not to do that. I wont go into details but the matter obviously disturbes me. This avatar in the end must have thought she scared us away cause I logged very fast. Fact is that I had to catch the RL train for RL work. Maybe this will give her a false feeling of victory and satisfaction...I dont know. The only thing I regret now is not taking a screeny......and oh yeah, Ive a new job..seems Im a pizza delivery boy..lmao
The *other* Roni
After hunting ambulimax at Nea's Place, I parked my Sleipnir at the central plaza in Port Atlantis. I cleaned up my armor, ambulimax thyroid oil can really wreck it, and while putting it away I looked around if anyone needed a ride to Limnadian District or Twin Peaks....or any other place on Eudora continent.
She came dashing by. Her name was Red. Red Pole Dancer to be precise. "Hey Roni" she shouts, "how are you?". I have a terrible memory for names but I didnt want to look unpolite so I greeted back. "Hullow Red, I'm fine. How are you today?". "Great to see you again Roni! Haven't seen you since you shot me at the old oil rig when I was a noob years ago." I look at her totally baffled. Me, shooting noobs at the rig years ago????
Slowly I realised that there must be another Roni on this planet. Which isn't that strange as it is quite a common name, I just never seen anyone yet with my name. "I'm sorry Red" I replied, "I just came with the latest colonist wave 2 years ago". "So I never been to the *old oil rig* and I never shot noobs". "I only recall shooting Weeder at the oil rig and that must have been a year ago". And he doesnt exactly qualify as noob......
"Oh" she said "I was sure it was you, sorry...". She looked at the Slepinir and asked: "But can you get me to the island south from here?". "Jen's Island? , sure Red" I replied, "hop on and dont forget the seatbelt". "And one other thing: if you want to get back to Port Atlantis, just hit T to get at the revive terminal in Port Atlantis."
She laughs and says: "good to see there are still helpfull people around here"
team Sara&Roni
Changing hunting tactics and results:
Being a solo hunter for a while I decided that mentoring Saradu was a good opportunity to hone my team hunt skills. As preps I made sure that both of us had a fitting armor, Saradu commented that she was a *bits and pieces* person with some different types of armor, and changing from rifles to pistols...we decided to give it a shot. Our try-out was dry ambu's at Nea's Place...Stelios joined team for a while...3 *small* guns....good for 2 globals....and great eco.
Shortly after Saradu and me visited Ithaca and payed the trox a visit......decent returns...Saradu only died once due to a crit hit...you go girl!
Roni's fav new gun: CAP202 amped A103....great pistol
2 years anniversary
Ahhhh dear followers of this group...yes...today, 10 january 2012, I am 2 years in Entropia....joining EU shortly after the introduction of V10....born at Treasure Island Castle (the egg, the egg !!!)...I soon discovered that *sweating* brissies wasnt the way to go....as I wasnt sure if I wanted to deposit I just run around TI and enjoyed the views and sounds....the next day I joined a tp run (yes, WALKING) to Neas Place...which resulted in *falling of the mountain* to be stuck with Thorifoids...those were the days :))
After 2 years, with a little depo break in between, Im glad Im still around...seeing vehicles introduced....the thrill of RT first and space and the other planets later, the make over of Eudoria and added content on Amethera. Happy as I made a lot of friends and sometimes sad when a good friend left, even if the reason was very valid.
Sometimes missing *old swamp*....where newbies and elders mingled...the shows of Caly with his hilarious Mo merp ads...the drama. It is good to remember but also to know how to move on to a new stage.
Space gave a whole new meaning to EU in my experience....with all the hazards..it is amazing to explore...new planets...new pple....new sights.
May Lootius shine on us all and may the HoF be with you.
Roni, Calypso Desert Rangers
Loot?
Question of the day: what do atrox and ambulimax eat?
This question popped in my head lately as I looted a *painting* from an ambu (and not the first time) and I remember a fishing rod from an atrox. As they are useless to us as we dont have an apt on EU it also brings up the question how they got there in the first place. Are there colonists running around the planet carying Oil Paintings? Was a colonist that confused he went fishing at Fort Ithaca? Intruiging questions......
The irony.......
Sometimes when you try to be a friend and help....it backfires at you...if there wasnt so much money involved it would be hilarious.
You always take some risk when you trust someone, either in RL or in a virtual world. I helped this lady...I knew her a long time and yes...I trusted her. She was setting up a space cab drive bussines. I helped her out on some money and even sold her a Kismet laser gun cheap (high MU on auction) for her Quad. Last sunday I helped another friend with getting stuff from Calypso to Arkadia....on the flight back some od stuff happened...first of all the lady friend landed on Arkadia when I was waiting to depart and we had a chat. I obviously wasnt paying attention cause she yelled the pirate slogan in local: something with Nebula Virus...if I had paid attention I could have guessed that it was a pirate society. I also could have known that she had shifted from space cab driving to piracy...which basicly means they claim to loot anyone in space....society rules. She was also cunning enough to check if I had any stackables and to check who was my passenger..as soon as I entered space she was waiting for me....and blasted me to smithereens.....SHOT BY MY OWN GUN!!!!!!! .....My stackables and those of my passenger were looted...not nice...but thats the risk of PvP I guess. I chatted her saying this was not cool....her point of view: its PvP.....and pirates dont care if you are a friend or not. Guess she has a point there...next time I bring my point....a VERY BIG GUN.
For privacy reasons I didnt use any avatar names as it was fair game in the end. Just not cool.
More abrevs
L=limited items....they cannot be repaired...but good side is : they keep their full protection or function until broken (3% TT value), often have better eco
unL= unlimited items, these can be repaired. bad side: e.g.: the protection of unL armor goes down when it gets degraded...so it has to be fully repaired for full protection. This doesnt apply to weapons. Word goes unL miner seekers are less succesfull when they are damaged.
eco= economic, an expression used in Entropia to express a low or no loss in money.
SIB=Skill Increase Bonus, L items such as weapons and mining gear give you a bonus in skilling. This relates to your avatar skill level and the level of item as gun or seeker. Some rare unL items are SIB....usually very expensive
maxed=when the SIB is finished you use the item most eco
LA= Land Area, a piece of land on a planet owned by a player or society, and loot or mining claim on a LA will be taxed by the landowner
Toxic Area= Area that has become toxic after the first robot wars. To enter you can buy a Syringe at the TT. You can fly in toxic area without getting the usual warning....instant kill....
MS=Mother Ship. The biggest spaceship available. basicly 3 ships can go in space: the VTOL(needs thruster), Quad wing (needs thruster), and the MS
pet=tamed animal (wil become active again in 2012) needs a stable and Nutri bars
nutri bar=pet food made of sweet and fruits. Sweet is an enmatter
sweat=life blood of all animals, can be extracted with the VSK (sweat tool)
VSK=vibrant sweat collector...the only free tool provided by MA when starting in EU
FAP=First Aid Pack...its a type of healing device, but is commingly used as a name for all healing devices..Vivo T1, SK20, Herb Box
fapper=a medic that aids hunters, usually better eco for the hunter as they dont have to wear heavy armor or FAP themselves...then the mob regens and the damage must be done again
regen=regenerate, all living things regen over time, avatars but also animals, robots dont!
fruits=can be found on the surface, you need to walk...running dont gives the time to spawn. this is free
dung=dung, used for fertilizing stations...mob spawns
Accomplished 1 goal for 2012!
Yesterday I reached level 18 Biotropic which basicly means I can use the regeneration field chip level I. I accomplished this by letting myself hit by 2 ambus and having the heal chip set on auto use.......hahahaha
Got a Implant 20, regeneration field chip I and some light Mind Essence at the auction and dashed to the sweaters group to give it a try. Oh what fun that was :))
Its a shame the chip was only available as Limited....they kinda degrade fast too...
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